Evans In Miniseries

May 18, 1986|By Crosby Day

LINDA EVANS, who portrays Krystle Carrington in the ABC nighttime soap Dynasty, will switch networks briefly to star in the CBS miniseries The Last Frontier. CBS is promoting Evans' role in the four-hour miniseries as an ''American woman who battles against an unmerciful environment to beat a ruthless land baron with the help of his son, her renegade lover.'' A network spokesman said that Jack Thompson will portray the renegade lover. No other cast members have been named, nor has a production date been announced. The miniseries, which will be filmed on location in the Australian outback, is scheduled to be televised during the 1986-87 season.

NBC COMEDY PILOT

PRODUCTION HAS been completed on a half-hour comedy pilot for the proposed Stiller & Meara Show, which will star the husband-and-wife team of Jerry Stiller and Ann Meara. In the NBC show, Stiller will play Jerry Bender, an assistant mayor of New York City. Meara will portray Bender's actress-wife, who appears in commercials. The couple will have three children, two of whom will live at home. Stiller and Meara have appeared in several commercials, including those for Blue Nun wines and Eastman-Kodak photography products. They also have done several radio commercials. The pilot to the new series is scheduled to air next season. No start date has been announced for the filming of episodes for the sitcom.

CHANGES FOR SERIES

NBC'S GIMME a Break will be back for a sixth season next fall, but there will be a few changes. Katie (Kari Michaelsen), Julie (Lauri Hendler) and Samantha (Lara Jill Miller) will leave home, ''having reached the age when they ought to leave the nest,'' an NBC spokesman said. The characters may appear in occasional episodes during the 1986-87 season, the spokesman added. With the girls gone, Nell (Nell Carter) will decide to join her best friend, Addy Wilson (Telma Hopkins), in New York City and will move to an apartment there. Moving with Nell will be Grandpa Kaniski (John Hoyt), Joey Donovan (Joey Lawrence) and Joey's little brother, Oliver (Matthew Lawrence).

LATE-NIGHT DRAMA

CBS HAS ordered 13 episodes of a new weekly series called Crime World, which is scheduled to join T.J. Hooker and Night Heat on the network's midnight schedule in September. The hourlong drama will tell the story of male and female private detectives who double as investigative reporters for a crime magazine. The show will be filmed in Toronto and will be produced by Larry Jacobsen, who also produces the Toronto-based Night Heat. No cast has been announced for Crime World.

A REAL-LIFE TEACHER

JEFFREY TAMBOR, who plays blind English professor Paul Stark on ABC's Mr. Sunshine, really is a teacher. He teaches drama classes to professionals in Beverly Hills, Calif. Tambor, who said he's really not afraid of trying anything, admitted that he's nervous when he has to stand up and critique scenes his fellow professionals have presented in his drama class. ''The first time I did it I shook so badly I couldn't speak. I went downstairs and looked at myself in the mirror and said, 'Okay. Everything's going to be fine and you're going to be able to do it.' '' He's been doing it now for about six months.

A MUSICAL SALUTE

CBS' TELECAST of Broadway's annual Tony Awards presentation on Sunday, June 1, will pay tribute to the 40th anniversary of the awards. Included in the two-hour program will be a salute to four decades of Tony Award-winning musicals. Among the performers scheduled to appear are Lily Tomlin, Debbie Allen, Leslie Uggams, Hal Linden, Donald O'Connor and Juliet Prowse. The awards program will be televised at 9 p.m. on WCPX-Channel 6.